Soviet air force destruction bonus objective in Minsk battle.

[GhostLight]

Not a lot to say about it other than if there is a secret to doing this, it eludes me. It seems pretty obvious that you are given those temporary bombers at the start for this purpose, but as always with air units attacking airfields out of the blue, they get decimated by enemy AA.

On a related note, it does seem that often in this series there are bonus objectives that are actually must haves, like this one. Case in point: Although I got all the bonus objectives in the Battle of Smolensk, my losses were so heavy that, far from being able to do any upgrades for Kiev, I couldn't even cover all my losses! I strongly suspect this was due least in part to the stronger Soviet air force encountered at Smolensk on account of not getting the Minsk bonus objective, and this causing me heavier aircraft losses, and as everyone knows those are frighteningly expensive to replace.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions for this, please do share.

[cool]

Easiest way is to destroy them on the ground because the Soviet planes are in hangars for several turns in the beginning. Your ground units can take the one in the north near your lines (city of Augustów). In the Bialystok hangar there are three planes so this is a primary target. It is the only one protected by an AA gun but that can be taken down rather easily with Stukas if you so choose. Your third target is the hangar (airfield) near Grodno in the north. The objective is not too hard to achieve if you deploy enough Stukas of your own (I had five).

[GhostLight]

@cool.....great, sounds like a plan. Thanks for clarifying. Five Stuka's??? Wow! I thought I was doing good to have two. But yeah, I recognized early on that Stuka's were a must to counter the allied armor superiority.

[GhostLight]

It worked like a charm! ty man. I think the key thing I didn't realize was how effective the Stukas are against AA.

That said, with only four turns to go I'm probably not going to reach Slonim in time, but as I recall in my last attempt this is no big woop as obtaining that objective only gets you a couple of extra units near Grodno. Smashing the Soviet air force, however, I think is critical for the subsequent battles as it should keep my aircraft losses down, as long as I don't accidentally fly them near Russian AA.

[cool]

There is a thread in the next page about the Slonim-objective, but you are right: you only get some aux units for this scenario (three inf and a light arty) so it is not such a big deal. Besides, without them your core units get more experience.

Stukas are indeed very good against enemy AA. If you know you are going to attack a target protected by AA (like in this scen) it is better to neutralize the AA first. Even 1 - 2 attacks makes it rather weak. The game works so that AA is better when attacking on its own turn and much less powerful when firing in defense. So by attacking first you'll have the advantage and are better protected on AI's turn.

[GhostLight]

I still think chances are I'm going to restart the scenario to see if I can do it with fewer loses. One thing I've learned about this series is not only do you need a win, but you need to win in such a way that sets you up well for the next battle. In any event it doesn't look like I'm going to make the early completion bonus objective either, which if I understand it correctly will make the Battle of Moscow harder if you don't get it.

BTW, I've found Blitzkrieg a bit harder than Morning Sun. I had a few mid-game challenges in Morning Sun, but after getting past those hurdles the rest of the campaign wasn't too bad. Blitzkrieg, however, has been one challenge after another starting with Norway, though I will say that Fall Gelb/Belgium was a great scenario.

[cool]

I agree, Blitzkrieg is harder than Morning Sun and is in fact one of the more difficult DLCs. Belgium is indeed a great scenario with some nasty surprises (like the Char in the SW). In Blitzkrieg the snowball effect of OoB is very profound: success brings success but if you take too many losses you will likely struggle with the amount of RPs as the campaign goes on.

An early win at Smolensk will give you +4 Command Points in Moscow. It is definitely useful because there are a lot of Soviet units in that one.

[GhostLight]

I'm bummed. I restarted Minsk yet again, and was doing a little better with it in terms of casualties, but failed the early bonus objective by one lousy unit! (destroyed 79 when I needed 80) Unfortunately I'm not in the habit of making special saves every couple of turns, so I'm screwed. I do recall several players griping about the 'whack-a-mole' victory conditions in some OOB scenarios, and I can definitely relate.

Anyway, rather than get frustrated I decided to put OOB aside for a bit while I play the latest Civilization 6 expansion. Civ is a great series, though you do kind of have to turn a blind eye to the progressive liberal leanings of developer Firaxis. ;) But I digress.

I see that the OOB DLC's are on sale the next few days; guess I'm going to have to pick up the two Pacific campaigns and Panzerkrieg.

[cool]

That's a bummer indeed. :-( To avoid such a thing in the future you could turn on the "Autosave per turn" -feature. It can be found at the bottom of "Turn Overview" -box which is presented at the start of every turn (the one with objectives).

It is a good idea to play some other games for a change and Civs are great. As for the other OoB DLCs the Pacific campaigns are some my favs: they have carriers. PK is of course a natural choice after Blitzkrieg.

[Mercutio]

There are some tough missions and you really do need to autosave. Also the end of a scenario offers a chance to restart.

While I loved CIV V after the expansions, I have not been able to get into CIV VI. More power to you, but when last I tried it a year or so ago the AI was still clueless.

[GhostLight]

@cool: Ty for the head's up about the autosave per turn feature. I know Civ6 has this turned on automatically for like the past 15-20 turns I think.

Concerning the OOB Pacific DLC's, agree completely about the carriers. I remember when I did the tutorial I was pleasantly surprised how much fun the naval battle was. Also really liked having the pair of light carriers in the Morning Sun Shanghai scenario.

Concerning PanzerKrieg, looking forward to it if and when I ever finish Blitzkrieg. ;) I've always been fascinated with Stalingrad, Manstein's fabled backhand blow, and of course the apocalyptic Battle of Kursk.

@Mercutio: I know ppl have ragged on the Civ AI since time immemorial, but for my part I've always found it a mixed bag. Sometimes it seems oddly prescient, and others it has a serious case of the dumbasses. That said, I'm working on my first Civ6 win at King level difficulty. Love Queen Dido and the Phoenician faction in Civ6: Gathering Storm, what with her great navy, and my biggest complaint about Civ6 is the Saul Alinsky quote!!! lol

Speaking of AI, the OOB AI seems pretty good, if maybe a tad predictable at times. That said, if you make mistakes like using transport too close to the enemy, the AI will punish you for it. Also, the AI will look for gaps in your lines to cut your supply.

[=CAW=aldarions-lament]

One tactic i like to use is to parradrop enemy airfields. This will rapidly allow you to gain air superiority